Thursday, August 21, 2014

SURVIVAL AFTER DEATH

I was ruminating over the common belief that we go on living in something that's often referred to as a spiritual or astral existence after we die. Those who believe such things assume we're just a physical mirror of something more permanent and invisible that goes on after we die.

Comforting beliefs, but why doesn't that separate existence come into play when our brains are deadened by anesthetic? How can that entity speak without a mouth, hear without an ear, feel without a body, see without an eye, etc., all of which function through a brain that is physical and ceases to operate once its supply of oxygenated blood is cut off?

Resusitation of a dead person doesn't lead to anything except a vegetative existence if the physical brain is deprived of oxygen for any significant period of time and even that has a definite time period attached to it. It looks to me like anything "spiritual" is inexorably dependent on that fatty mass of tissue that resides inside our skulls.

I've not experienced anesthesia more than a couple times, but I can't tell you a solitary thing about what went on while I was "out." Why didn't I astral travel like some people claim they can? All we have as evidence for their doing so is the anecdotal claims they make for what could be nothing more than a vivid imagination and a daydream. I've had some pretty vivid daydreams in my time, and you probably have also. I can dredge up pictures from my boyhood on that North Dakota ranch anytime and about several other places I've lived. I can make them pretty vivid and if I let myself or was impressionable enough, I might even be sure I went back there in spirit.

I know this proves nothing, but neither do extraordinary claims which require extraordinary evidence and proofs before they can be established as facts. Courts don't accept "hearsay," and neither am I prepared to do so.

About Me

I am an escapee from cultic religion who spent 22 years of my life caught up in the Armstrongist Worldwide Church of God. I have since become an ardent agnostic atheist on the order of Thomas Paine, one of our great founding fathers. My purpose is to further as much as possible what Paine started in the 18th century.
Thomas Paine had the following to say about his book in his forward:
"TO MY FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
I PUT the following work under your protection. It contains my opinions upon Religion. You will do me the justice to remember, that I have always strenuously supported the Right of every Man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it.
The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is Reason. I have never used any other, and I trust I never shall.
Your affectionate friend and fellow-citizen,
THOMAS PAINE"